Chest cooler fermentation chamber

[safcraft]

Hi all,

Considering buying a used chest cooler and use my stc-1000 to control it at 40F to lager beers for 4-6 months.
Idea is keep brewing and put lagers in the cooler, so i can always have a lager finishing and another starting.

To all of you that use a similar equipment, do you know what is the anual consumption in kwh of a setup like this?
Does the chest cooler have a higher consumption maintaining 40F , rather than 10F as designed?
Does the chest cooler have a higher consumption with 20 gallons of beer inside, instead of a 5 gallon carboy?

Thanks for the inputs

 

[Jim311]

No, it doesn't use more energy to keep things warmer. The compressor runs at the same load regardless of whether its cranked to the coldest or hottest setting, but it runs the compressor much less frequently to maintain a warmer temperature. Yes, it does use more energy to keep 20 gallons of beer colder rather than 5 gallons of beer. There is more thermal mass with more beer. In all reality though, these chest freezers are very efficient and might use 20 or 30 dollars of electricity for an entire year of keeping things FROZEN!

 

[jlongstreet]

No, it doesn't use more energy to keep things warmer. The compressor runs at the same load regardless of whether its cranked to the coldest or hottest setting, but it runs the compressor much less frequently to maintain a warmer temperature. Yes, it does use more energy to keep 20 gallons of beer colder rather than 5 gallons of beer. There is more thermal mass with more beer. In all reality though, these chest freezers are very efficient and might use 20 or 30 dollars of electricity for an entire year of keeping things FROZEN!

I don't have numbers for this or anything, but once the temperature is reached with 20 gallons of beer, it probably takes less energy to maintain it than with 5 gallons. Thermal mass works in both directions -- it's cheaper to run a full fridge than an empty one.

 

[Jim311]

I"m not sure, it would be interesting to see. I know my chest freezer at home is absolutely slammed full of frozen stuff and I hardly ever hear it run.

 

[safcraft]

Yes i also believe that once the temperature is reached, a full refrigerator consums less than an empty one. But i did not try and log it yet.
The doubt was...does it turn on a lot maintaing 40f instead of 10f beeing a freezer and designed to keep things frozen, not cooled.

 

[jlongstreet]

It will turn on less.

You'll be using a temperature controller, which will turn the freezer on and off when the temperature fluctuates. So at, say, 42F, it will switch on, and the freezer will attempt to get it to 10F. Once it reaches, say, 38F, the temp controller will switch it off again.